A change in Major League Baseball commissioners did not alter the view toward Pete Rose’s fitness to be part of the game.

Rob Manfred, who succeeded longtime commissioner Bud Selig in January, has denied Rose's application for reinstatement, informing baseball's all-time hits king on Monday that he will remain on the outside looking in nearly three decades after his ban for gambling on the sport, and issuing a three-page statement that says Rose has fallen far short of rehabilitating his life in a fashion that suggests he could associate with a major league team.

Manfred cited "new evidence" his staff turned up after Manfred decided in April to reexamine Rose's case and ordered a "comprehensive review" of the case, and found further instances of Rose violating baseball's Rule 21 on misconduct.

Manfred's ruling means Rose may not associate with MLB's central office, any major league or affiliated minor league team, continuing a ban that began Aug. 24, 1989.

"We are disappointed by the decision of Commissioner Manfred announced this morning, " Rose's lawyers said in a written statement. "We are reviewing the ruling with Pete and members of his family."

This time, however, it was both gambling evidence and Rose's failure to "present credible evidence of a reconfigured life" that Manfred cited in keeping Rose out of the game and, by extension, the Hall of Fame.

Most notably, Manfred said, was a notebook federal investigators obtained from Michael Bertolini in October 1989 that detailed "records of bets placed by Michael Bertolini on his own behalf and on behalf of Pete Rose, including bets placed on Cincinnati Reds games by Mr. Rose during the 1986 championship season when he was the player-manager for the Cincinnati Reds."

Rose met with Manfred in New York three months ago, one month after Rose's representatives submitted a polygraph test Rose took in August to, Manfred stated, "demonstrate the veracity of certain prior statements he made concerning his violations of (MLB's gambling policy."

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Manfred said the polygraph results did not enter into his ruling. Manfred said that during their September meeting, Rose acknowledged betting on Reds games in 1987 (a year after he retired as a player), but that he "could not remember" many facts established in the Dowd Report on his gambling in 1985 and '86.

He also "made assertions concerning his gambling habits that were directly contradicted by documentary evidence (the Bertolini notebook) secured by my office.

"And, significantly, he told me he currently bets recreationally and legally on horses and sports, including baseball.

"It is not at all clear to me that Rose has a grasp of the scope of his violations of Rule 21....I am also not convinced he has avoided the type of conduct and associations that originally led to his placement on the permanently ineligible list.

"In short, Mr. Rose has not presented credible evidence of a reconfigured life, either by an honest acceptance of his wrongdoing, so clearly established in the Dowd Report, or by a rigorous, self-aware and sustained program of avoidance by him of all the circumstances that led to his permanent ineligibility in 1989."

Section (d) of Rule 21 states that "Any player, umpire, or club official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in
connection with which the bettor has no duty to perform shall be declared ineligible for one year. Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible."

Manfred closed his statement by noting Rose will still be allowed to participate in pre-approved ceremonial activities within the game, but "may not associated with any major or minor league club."

“It’s the right decision," former MLB commissioner Fay Vincent, who spoke with Manfred on Monday morning, told USA TODAY Sports. "Really, there is no other decision. Any criticism of it would be out of concern for Pete Rose. But this is absolutely the proper decision.
"This comes as no surprise at all.’’

He originally applied for reinstatement in 1997 and met with then-commissioner Bud Selig in 2002.

"I remain committed to the idea that Mr. Rose deserves an opportunity to tell me, in whatever format he feels most comfortable, whatever he wants me to know about the issues,'' Manfred told reporters at the All-Star Game in July. Manfred promised that he would render a decision on Rose's application by the end of the year.

Manfred allowed Rose participation in certain events tied to the All-Star Game, and he received a standing ovation before the game as he was honored by the Reds as part of MLB's "franchise four" promotion.

On May 9, 1989, investigator John Dowd hands over a 225-page report on Rose to Commissioner Bart Giamatti. The case against Rose is built largely on phone records and the testimony of bookmaker Ron Peters, and Rose's former friends Paul Janszen and Tommy Gioiosa, seen in picture. The three claim that Rose placed bets on baseball games, some involving the Reds. Jon Chase, AP

On June 26, 1989, Rose rubs his eyes at the start of his regularly scheduled post game press conference at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. ESPN says it obtained a notebook that shows Rose bet on Reds games during his last season as an active player in 1986. Rob Burns, AP

Rose looks at memorabilia in a museum, located near the National Baseball Hall of Fame, dedicated to him on July 23, 1999, in Cooperstown, N.Y. The museum is in The American Baseball Experience on Main Street in Cooperstown. David Jennings, AP

Before Game 2 of the 1999 World Series, Rose is peppered with questions by NBC reporter Jim Gray, who asks him several times in a TV interview if he wants to admit betting on baseball and apologize. Michael Schwarz, USA TODAY Sports

The 2004 release of Rose's book, My Prison Without Bars, overshadows the election of Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor to the Baseball Hall of Fame, drawing the ire of Selig and several of Rose's staunchest backers, who had been trying to broker a deal with Selig to get Rose reinstated. Bill Kostroun, AP